Tuesday, October 28, 2008

... about to begin his second season as coach of the baseball team at Linfield College, his alma mater, in his hometown of McMinnville, Ore., Brosius lives the calm, laid-back life that his DNA seems to require. Competing in the Division III Northwest Conference, Brosius' Wildcats play under a 60-watt spotlight. They may draw, oh, 100 fans to a game, and the go-hard-or-die approach that Brosius grew accustomed to with the Yankees doesn't quite exist at Roy Helser Field. "It was a hard adjustment at first, because I sort of grew used to a very, very high level, and these kids obviously aren't there," says Brosius, who led the Wildcats to a 35-13 mark and a spot in the Division III championship tournament in 2008. "You're a teacher before anything else, which I love. But it was a big change."

Though Brosius certainly enjoyed his 11-year major league career, he was always -- in the best possible sense -- a man who shunned the spotlight; he politely ducked excessive praise and was quick to point out the merits of teammates. In a city that had five different newspapers covering the Yankees, Brosius read about his team exactly zero times. "That's probably how I survived," he says, laughing. "When I arrived [in a trade for Kenny Rogers], I made a commitment to myself that I would never check out the Yankees' coverage in the newspapers -- and I didn't. In four years there, I never read a Yankee article. That was liberating. I held no grudges against writers, and I never obsessed over how I was perceived. I wanted to be anonymous."

Brosius went about his business with a much-appreciated workmanlike diligence. He refused to hotdog; followed up home runs with a quick, compact trot around the bases; never complained about a day off. "Scott is the ultimate professional," Joe Torre once said -- the perfect praise. "You don't have to worry about him."

Brosius also said how the memories of the 1998 World Series are still very vivid in his head and that, "I never wear the ring, but I don't need to. I was there for the moments."

Brosius was very easy to root for, he never said anything or did anything to embarrassed the franchise, and he went out everyday and did everything he could to help the Yankees win. Always a class act and he epitomized the grinder mentality of those Yankees teams.